Suffolk
SITA UK and Suffolk County Council are working together to manage residual household waste in Suffolk over the next 25 years.
Suffolk is one of the country’s top recycling councils, with a current recycling and composting rate of around 50 per cent. However, this still leaves over 200,000 tonnes of household waste - plus business waste - that currently goes to landfill.
In order to reduce the amount of Suffolk’s waste that goes to landfill and the associated cost to council taxpayers, SITA UK is planning to develop an energy-from-waste facility at Suffolk County Council’s Highways Depot site on Lodge Lane, Great Blakenham.
The facility sits alongside the Suffolk Waste Partnership’s goal to recycle or compost 60 per cent of municipal waste by 2015. By diverting waste from landfill, recovering valuable energy from the waste left after recycling and reducing the county’s dependence on fossil fuels, SITA UK would help to support Suffolk’s aspiration to be the greenest county.
The facility will use modern, proven energy-from-waste technology to produce enough electricity to power 30,000 homes (approximately the same number of homes as in Lowestoft) and will create around 43 new, long-term jobs for Suffolk.
The planning application for the facility was submitted to Suffolk County Council on 11 January 2011along with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which shows how the community and environment will be protected.
Suffolk County Council's development control committee approved SITA UK's planning application on 21 July 2011. Construction work is likely to begin in early 2012. Updates on the progress of the construction programme will appear here and the facility will potentially be operational by December 2014.
Community engagement
To ensure that the local community and wider Suffolk residents are fully informed about the proposals, we have undertaken a comprehensive pre-application engagement programme, where we have sought feedback from local residents and interested parties.
This has included a series of public exhibitions, newsletters, information packs and a community liaison group. An initial public exhibition was held on 22 and 23 July 2010 in Great Blakenham. A second round of public exhibitions took place at Great Blakenham on 26 and 27 September 2010 and this was followed up with further public exhibitions in towns across Suffolk.
Information and dowloads
View the latest information available to download ...
- Latest newsletter sent to local residents and businesses: Suffolk energy-from-waste news - June 2011
- Latest exhibition boards displayed at the exhibitions in Great Blakenham Village Hall: Suffolk energy-from-waste exhibition boards - September 2010
- Non-technical summary of the planning application: Non-technical summary of SITA UK's planning application
Computer generated fly-throughs
View travelling from Great Blakenham village
Community liaison group
SITA UK is taking part in a community liaison group each month. The group is made up of representatives from the local community. The group discusses issues relating to the proposed development and at the group's request, SITA UK invites specialist speakers to provide further information.
You can download minutes from the community liaison group meetings here:
SITA UK produces a fact sheet following community liaison group meetings, with a summary of the topic that's been discussed:
- Suffolk energy-from-waste community liaison group briefing note - Traffic
- Suffolk energy-from-waste community liaison group briefing note - Air quality
- Suffolk energy-from-waste community liaison group briefing note - Health and safety
For further details, please contact our freephone community information line on 0800 072 1179. Alternatively you can email us with questions or feedback at suffolkefw@sita.co.uk, or write to us at:
SITA Suffolk
Freepost reference RSHJ-LKUR-TALS
c/o PPS Group
Langham House
302-308 Regent Street
London W1B 3AT



